The Louisiana Democrat., 1887-03-02
THE RACE FOR WEALTH.
Some of the Incentives to and Conse
quences of Mammon Worship.

are two good reasons why this should
be so. One is that it is a virgin coun-
try possessed of great natural riches
and affords every man an opportunity
to Get ahead, and the other is that it is
inhabited by men of unequaled energy
and shrewdness who know how to make
the best use of their advantages. If
this condition of prosperity were at
tended by some principle which would
effectually operate to check the desire
| for inordinate wealth, the American
| Nation would be the best substitute the
! world affords for that blessed commu-
] nifty which was the dream of Sir Thom-
as More. But there is no such principle
operative on ssy scale wide enough to
| produce the desired effect. The love
of money is the root of an evil that can
not be extirpated without making some
radical changes in the constitution of
human nature The man who has his
100000 of capital will strive to make
it $500, 900, and when he reaches that
point in nineteen cases out of twenty
he is Just as anxious to raise it to ST.
900, 900 as he was in the beginning to
accumulate 100000.
The millionaire is the natural prod
uct of the man and his opportunities.
There are instances of successful men
with philosophy enough to ''shut
down. on themselves when they have
acquired competency" but the in
stances are very few. The protest
which the circumstances of the time
compel the public censor to make is
not so much against the milIionaires
as against the spirit which the con-
test for wealth has engendered and
the evils that are begotten of the strife.
There is not the least objection to the
accumulation of large fortunes so long
as the rules of honesty and fair play
are observed. 1t is because of the de-
moralization produced by the innumer-
able departures from those rules that
the press and the pulpit are to-day ut
tering III concert their reproaches and
warnings.
1t would not be impossible to find in
the history of mankind chapter more
disfgured by the calamities which
mammon worship entails than the
chapter which records the career of
Americans who have sought to get rich
by "short cuts' since the close of the
civil war. The strain of this ambition
has wrecked families, polluted the
sources of justice, corrupted Legisla-
lures, turned away the currents of
trade, blighted once unsullied reputa-
tons, and produced more crime an,p
misery than any other influence,
with the single exception of the
thirst for strong drink. 1t is the
acute mania of American society.
The roots of the evil can be traced
down into the very soil of the fam
lily circle. 1t begins with the influ-
ences that revolve around mans own
tireside. By those influences the wife
is transformed into a conspirator
against her husband. The rivalries of
fashion are the prolific author of the
curse. The love of dress and display,
the desire to outshine our neighbors,
the impulse to indulge in extravagant
hospitality are like SO many consuming
fires that burn at full blast without any
adequate reckoning of how long the
the fuel is likely to hold out. Vanity
Fair becomes furnace in the flames
of which good name and fortune
ultimately perish like so much stubble.
When man has achieved that stage
of pros perity where his wife and
daughters first feel that they can ven-
turc to enter the gay circle of flash
ionab1e society," he stands on the dan.
ger-line. If he has the courage to
refuse to advance beyond it his
safety is assured. But in the
great majority of cases he lacks
the courage. Conjugal and flial af-
fection prompts him to acts of indul-
gence and blinds him to the possible
consequences of them. His first mis-
take is to keep from his wife the fact
that the purchase of Il costly garment,
or the removal into more snowy resi-
dence, or the qualification of her wish
to ride in her own carriage, or any of
the other numerous acts by which the
fatal career is inaugurated, is an ex-
pense which he can not afford. If
he were but brave enough to say to her
that this indulgence was beyond his
means, and she were woman to ap-
preciate his candor. he might be saved.
But the reflection which generally con-
trolls him is, what disappointment it
would be to her if he declined to crafty
her ambition. Most men who have
suffered the consequences of this kind
of reasoning will acknowledge, Think,
that their inf tfal error was in omittiny
to take their wives into their confidence
as to their business affairs. The woman
is too proud or too trusting to solicit it.
She would like to know exactly what
her husbands resources are, but she
will not seek a confidence he does not
ask her to share. In most cases he as
sumes, therefore. that he knows what
he is about, and her wants and tastes
in total ignorance of his meas
ure of ability to meet them.
In the family council, where the wife
or daughters, emulous of their neigh
bors' display, resolve to initiate that
vanity, is planted the upas destined to
poison the atmosphere of all their lives.